John Albert Taylor

I would like to say for my family and my friends — as the poem was written, 'Remember me, but let me go.'

After an autopsy, Taylor's remains were cremated and shipped to his uncle Gordon Lee in Oregon. The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said it would specify homicide as the cause of death on Taylor's death certificate because the execution met the state's definition of "death by another's hand." A commemorative coin was created to recognize the staff who had participated in the execution. Eight hours after Taylor's execution, Utah State Representative Sheryl Allen first introduced a bill to eliminate the firing squad, and later succeeded in passing HB180, which removed the right of the condemned to choose their method of execution after February 2004.

Taylor gave up appealing his sentence after his request for retrial was rejected by the Utah Supreme Court. He became the second person to be executed by firing squad in the United States (after Gary Gilmore) since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Taylor said he chose this method of execution to embarrass the state of Utah. On January 26, 1996, the day of Taylor's execution, legislation was introduced in the Utah House of Representatives to eliminate the firing squad.

For his last meal Taylor ordered a large Ambassador pizza with thin crust, onions, mushrooms, hot peppers, sausage, pepperoni, ham and extra cheese. He also asked for a Coke. When Taylor ordered a last meal of pizzas "with everything," some law enforcement veterans recalled that the same request was made by Barton Kay Kirkham, the last man to be hanged in Utah. Like Taylor, Kirkham had selected his method of execution with the goal of inconveniencing the state. On January 25, 1996, Taylor spent his final evening sharing his pizza with his uncle Gordon Lee while joined by former attorney Ed Brass and Catholic priest Reyes Rodriguez, who administered the Last Rites. Taylor, whose stomach had been doing "flip-flops" earlier in the day, requested antacid medication and declined deputy warden Wally Schulsen's offer for more pizza, soda, and coffee. He gave his glasses to warden Hank Galetka and said, "There is no need for them." Taylor refused an offer to be sedated before his execution, but was allowed his first cigarette in six years.

Shortly before midnight, Taylor was led into the execution chamber and strapped to a chair 17 feet away from the shooters with a hood covering his head. Multiple bright lights covered Taylor. Sandbags were arranged behind him to prevent any ricochets. The captain walked down the aisle, tapping each shooter on the shoulder to check to see if they were ready. At 12:03 a.m. Mountain Standard Time on January 26, 1996, every shooter fired at the count of five and the white cloth target on Taylor's chest flew off. His chest moved upward and his left hand tightened into a fist. His grip gradually loosened and his head fell back. A doctor checked Taylor's neck for a pulse and cut two holes in his hood to check for a pupillary light reflex. Taylor was declared dead at 12:07 a.m. and became the 49th person to be executed in the state of Utah since 1852.

In October 1995, Taylor decided to end further appeals after the Utah Supreme Court rejected his argument that his legal counsel was ineffective. He fired defense attorney Ed Brass, stating: "If I don't fight for my appeal, I don't need an attorney." Taylor said he was prepared to die partly because of his failing health, including an enlarged heart, bleeding ulcers, and swollen legs and feet.

The case was automatically appealed to the Utah Supreme Court, which upheld Taylor's conviction and sentence in October 1991. Taylor's execution was initially scheduled for January 15, 1992. The date was rescheduled to June 24 when Taylor's attorney Martin Gravis requested to withdraw from the case. On June 17, Judge Roth granted a stay of execution after Taylor's new defense attorney Ron Yengich requested more time to prepare an appeal. At issue was a new 1992 law in Utah that established the sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

At around 3:20 p.m. on June 23, 1989, Sherron King returned from work to her apartment in Washington Terrace, Utah to find the body of her daughter Charla in the bedroom with a nightgown wrapped around her head and panties stuffed in her mouth. After calling the police, she was instructed to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and discovered that Charla had been strangled to death with a telephone cord. Charla's foster grandmother Bertha Poster stated that she had dropped Charla off at the apartment at about 1:30 p.m. after visiting the mall. Charla had been planning to celebrate her 12th birthday at an amusement park on the next day. Prosecutors believe that Taylor entered the house with intent on sexually molesting the girl. When she caught him in the house, prosecutors believe, he chased her into the bedroom, and placed her underwear in her mouth. He raped her, placed a nightgown over her head, and strangled her to death.

On November 27, 1989, the trial commenced under District Judge David Roth after Taylor waived his right to a jury. Taylor testified on his own behalf that he only entered the apartment in the act of burglary while no one was home, leaving his fingerprints on the phone when he found money underneath it. Weber County deputy attorney William Daines stated that Taylor previously denied being in the apartment and that two witnesses placed him at the scene at the time of the crime. Prison inmate Mike Gallegos testified that he had a brief conversation in which Taylor told him that he killed a girl by accident, and masturbated on the corpse. Duane Moyes and James Gaskill of the Weber State College crime laboratory testified that the person who cut the telephone cord with a knife and wrapped it around the neck of the victim was likely the same as the one who left behind fingerprints on the phone. Lab director Gaskill stated that the prints, three of which were matched to fingers on Taylor's left hand, were the only evidence that placed Taylor at the crime scene. Gaskill said there was no evidence in the apartment to indicate a burglary took place or that any other person was connected to the murder.

On December 5, 1989, Judge Roth found Taylor guilty of the first-degree child rape and first-degree murder of Charla Nicole King. During the penalty phase of Taylor's trial, his half-sister Leslie Beale traveled from Florida to testify about his harsh treatment under his stepfather and the three years that Taylor spent in a sex offender program at a Florida mental institution. On December 19, Taylor became the first convict in 40 years to be sent to death row by a Weber County court. Roth said that the facts of the case outweighed any mitigating circumstances. Taylor's father Albert attended most of his son's court proceedings until he died of heart failure on October 8, 1990. Taylor said he was not permitted to attend his father's funeral.

In 1977, Taylor was arrested in Florida and charged with burglary and carrying a concealed weapon after he was caught with a stolen gun. He was convicted and imprisoned until December 1981, when he was released on parole. In March 1982, he was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for armed burglary, armed robbery, and sexual assault. He had been diagnosed at the age of 17 as "a remorseless pedophile." He was acquitted of the charges in September 1982, but was sentenced to 15 additional years in prison for parole violations. In 1989, Taylor was released and departed for Utah to be with his sisters and biological father, who he discovered was still alive.

John Albert Taylor was born in Ogden, Utah to Albert and Gaylene Taylor, who separated during his infancy. He moved several times during his youth, including a move to Colorado at the age of nine, when he was told that his father had died. According to Taylor, he was raised in Florida, where he was abused as a child and became involved in drugs by his teens. Taylor stated that he did not get along with his stepfather, a Vietnam veteran, or his mother: "But she could never control me. My mother had a lot of animosity toward my father. They alienated me for a long time. I was the whipping post." At the age of 13, he stabbed his stepfather. According to court records, he repeatedly raped and sodomized his sister Laurie during his teens, and raped, and sodomized other young girls, and was committed to a sex offender program. In 1974, Taylor moved back to Ogden to live with his grandmother, but soon returned to Florida.

John Albert Taylor (June 6, 1959 – January 26, 1996) was an American who was convicted of burglary and carrying a concealed weapon in the state of Florida, and sexual assault and murder in the state of Utah. Taylor's own sister tipped off police in June 1989 after 11-year-old Charla King was found raped and strangled to death in Washington Terrace, Utah. His fingerprints were found at the crime scene, which was located in an apartment complex where he had been staying. In December 1989, Taylor was sentenced to death and placed on death row at Utah State Prison.